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“Do not,” I said it swiftly, so swiftly that his head jerked back up. I leaned forward, letting him see everything I was about to say, letting him see how much I meant it. “It is a fucking tragedy what happened to my brother, and I’m not talking about today. I’m talking about when my mom drove into the river, when she died and he didn’t, when he was saved by the worst possible people who could’ve been there at that moment. I’m talking about how he was then raised by them. They helped create him into this, but…” I couldn’t go there, what I now realized my mom had known and why she made the decision to drive into the river. It was ghastly and horrible and no mother should do what she did, but she did it for a reason. That wasn’t for Travis to know, not yet anyway. “It morphed him into who he became, which was a killer. He told me Ben died in that river, and I believe him. That guy out there—” I gestured to him, not looking because a part of me was still aching at the loss of what could’ve been, “—he’s not Ben. He had no soul, and putting him down was the most humane thing you could’ve done.” A tear slid down my face, and dammit. I turned away, saying, my voice dipping, “The brother I loved would’ve been horrified at the man he became. You put him out of his misery, and you brought justice to all the people he’s killed. Don’t ever feel guilty about what you did.”
Brett was coming back.
I felt him before I saw him.
He stood in the doorway, his eyes on me, so dark, and Travis was right. His beast was there, but Brett was doing what he needed to appease him. A nerve in his jaw twitched before he came to my side. As he bent down to me, we both heard Travis say, “I shot him in front of you. You shouldn’t have to watch your brother die, no matter what kind of man he became in the end.”
Both Brett and I looked his way, but he didn’t notice. A distant expression was on his face.
“I would’ve had it no other way.”
Travis’ head snapped to me, surprised.
“I saw my brother at the end. I was with him. That’s all that matters to me. I got my brother back, and it doesn’t matter how short it was, I still got him back for a brief moment. I would’ve had it no other way.”
Wetness pooled on the bottom of Travis’ eyes, but he blinked rapidly, clearing that away. His jaw turned rigid and he looked away as it seemed our moment was done. Brett gently slid his arms under me, and just as gently stood with me cradled against his chest.
He took me outside, saying gruffly, “Look away.”
He wouldn’t know this until later, but I tucked my head into his chest because I didn’t want to see the police. The ambulances. I didn’t want to see the chaos that my brother created. That’s what was making my heart so heavy. He thought he was saving me from looking down as we walked past Ben’s body, but that didn’t bother me.
I peeked.
Goodbye, Ben.
I asked Brett later, “Is Callie okay? What happened at your house?”
He shifted closer to me, lying on the bed with me until that wasn’t enough. He reached over and deposited me on top of him, his body relaxing almost dramatically. I’d been given the all clear from the hospital and Howard had been taken back for emergency surgery to see if they could reattach his ear. Vicky was being taken care of so Brett pulled me into an empty room and held me as his giant body slightly trembled against me.
I breathed him in, balling his shirt in my fists. His beard grazed against my neck as he answered me, “She’s fine. Her friend got a ride to the house by her brother. Callie said she was only supposed to drop something off for her, but they talked for a little bit. And something must’ve sent her friend’s brother off because he suddenly started making threats. He’s got some deeper struggles going on. It got scary and that’s when she called me. The cops arrested him, but I guess that family member was the reason Callie stopped staying at her friend’s place. With him in jail, she went back there.”
“Are they going to be okay?”
He began kneading at one of my hips. “I think so.”
The door opened. A nurse stood there. “You can’t be in her—” She stopped when Brett lifted his head, and her eyes got big. “Oh. Oh. Mr. Brett Broudou. I—hello.” She blinked a few times, her face getting serious. “I’m guessing the plethora of men wearing badges and carrying guns are here for one of you?”
Brett bribed her with an autograph and a promised video message to her son if she’d hold them off for another hour.
She sighed, looking back out the hallway. “That’s going to be a team effort sort of thing. Order some pizzas for the nurse’s desk and we can probably get you two hours.”
The two hours went too fast.
After that, the questions started.
So many detectives and FBI agents and other kinds of government people came to question me. Then the press.
There was so much press.
People became obsessed with how my brother who had been thought dead turned out to be the mastermind behind the Copier Killer. A floodgate of cold cases were reopened as police all over were now matching my brother’s DNA to unidentified DNA found in their cases.
There was a count of how many victims my brother had killed, but I didn’t want to know. I couldn’t bear to know. I’d learn it one day, probably from walking past a room as a report would be discussing my brother on the news. I was resigned to it, having lived through this maelstrom of events once before.
Howard had to stay in the hospital for a week because he was suffering from internal damage we hadn’t known about, but he got his ear back. Vicky looked ready to either cry or beat someone up when she saw the scars Howard would have for the rest of his life.
Howard winked at me. The scar didn’t bother him that much.
It took months later, but we buried my brother in a grave next to my mom. His headstone was unmarked and the ceremony was private. I couldn’t stomach thinking about asking Vicky and Howard, or Lo and Roger if they wanted to come for the ceremony. So with a local minister, just Brett and I were there.
